i'm dreaming of a san fran xmas

i'm so glad i was able to spend christmas with my whole immediate family this year! and in san fransisco? you can't beat that. we had a blast. i finally told my siblings that i'm pregnant, and now i'm relieved to not be carrying around that secret!! :) i'm also glad that now everyone knows, i can start blogging about the wonderful things that are happening with my body everyday- things like crying-spells out of nowhere, throwing up or feeling nauseous at all times, sleeping 22 hours a day... you know, the joys that every woman wishes she could endure everyday of her life. :) actually, it's going to be SOOOO worth it in the end, so it's a mixed feeling of frustration and joy. i spend 100% of my time thinking about this baby. i'm a woman, so naturally i can think of other things at the same time (haha!), but it has clearly damaged my brain cells so far. i have spelled my name wrong, and claimed it was 2006, both last week. yes, babies take your brain cells. :) 1/3 of the time i'm excited and thinking of names and nursery themes, 1/3 of the time i'm worried that something will go wrong, and 1/3 of the time i'm having a mini panic attack at the thought that i'll have a child in less than a year. :) am i strange or do all parents go through those cycles?

i'll post more on my pregnancy later, i may actually start a pregnancy blog- i've thought about so much i'd like to write about. 2009 will be a BUSY year for the guice family!

here are some pictures from our trip- we saw the golden gate bridge, we went to muir woods and walked through a redwood forest, and spent christmas night at nana's place in walnut creek- she rented a building for us and it worked out perfectly! they had christmas pinatas set up for the kids- they loved it so much. it was a great time, and we were sorry to leave, but the real world of work and bills must go on! :)

sorry boys!

well, i had a hilarious video of emma and brian playing tug-a-war tonight, because dallin and kevin wanted to see them play, but this stupid computer won't load it, and i'm tired, so i'll try again tomorrow. in the meantime, here are 2 funny pictures i caught tonight- one is emma shaking her head, one is of brian giving me the "evil eye." if you click on the one of emma to see it closer, you can even see some dust flying off her head. sweet dirty dog. ;)

one of many firsts

today we spent a few hours at the new practice ripping up carpet (well, i provided moral support while brian ripped up carpet...). :) it was nice to do something to make it feel like our own. brian set up 4 meetings for us on tuesday with different contractors and designers to bounce around different ideas for flooring and construction. it's all going to be happening really quickly in january! we're hopefully going to be having brian's mom's professional painting assistance :) when we get to that, and my parents have offered their help, too, so we're probably going to be able to open by march 1st with no problems! whew! it's going to come quickly!

let's see what else is going on... winter in little rock has been hit or miss. it's freezing cold one day and muggy and barely cool the next. i want it to snow at least once! we'll see if that happens...

i can't believe how soon christmas is creeping up on us. i'm very much looking forward to our san fran trip! it'll be too too too too good to see the pratt family again from their long time living in germany, and i'm going to melt when i get to meet my first niece cate!!! she's such a doll, and i can't wait to squish those adorable cheeks. and i can't imagine how many times i'll be outsmarted by alex and nathan. they're practically in college now from the smarty-pants they're turning out to be. i still have some christmas shopping to do, and it's going to be a challenge, because they all have to fit on the plane!

i'll post more updates about the practice as they happen!

THE KAVANAUGH EYE

here are some pictures of the new place, as promised. i don't have good inside pictures because we don't have the keys yet, but don't you love the dark wood and open feel of the windows for walls? we're going to paint the walls (perhaps a darker red, like the kitchen in our memphis house, but not all walls, just accents) and put in dark, stained concrete floors. doesn't that sound hip? we'll also have bright lighting everywhere :)

i played with some of the pics to have the name on the awning. pretty cool, huh? i can't wait!

GOOD NEWS!

brian got his loan tuesday and negotiated all terms of the lease yesterday, so we are OFFICIALLY owners of The Kavanaugh Eye!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! we get access to the building and $$ in january, so we're hoping to have him open by late spring. key word: hoping. we'll see how everything goes, but we're both very very excited about it. we went to shogun last night to celebrate, and just kept looking at each other, shaking out heads with wide eyes, thinking to ourselves, "WHAT IN THE WORLD DID WE GET OURSELVES INTO???" :)

i'm so proud of him. i keep saying "we" cause we're a team, but HE's done this. he's worked his butt off (with my support, i know), for a REALLY long time, and has done more research and studying than i can comprehend, and it's finally here for him. it's a very emotional time for me! i'm just oozing with pride for my husband. :) he's going to do so incredibly well with this place and i'm looking forward to helping him in any way that i can. we're still working out the details of how i'll be a part of it, but i'll at least be doing a lot of the marketing/advertising in the beginning. oh, and whether he likes it or not, i'm helping decorate!!! :) oh, what fun it will be... :)

i'll post pictures of it as soon as i can. i should've gone over there today, but i'll wait till we get keys (i think tomorrow), and i'll get some good pictures inside, outside and all around it.

bah humbug!!

okay, so decorating your christmas tree is supposed to be fun, right??? well, it was, for the most part, but the following things make it hard to enjoy yourself:

1. when you put up your entire fake tree, and realize that the last row of branches is completely missing.
2. when you can't find an extension cord in your ENTIRE house.
3. when you go to plug in the lights on the tree, and they don't turn on.

well, after much agonizing, i finally got it all up. i still haven't found another extension cord for our smaller tree for the endtable, though. poor brian kept saying, "are you okay in there?" because i was acting like the tree was out to kill me. :) i did find some cool new things in the boxes that i had forgotten i had bought after christmas last year when they were on mega-sale. :)

here are some pictures of my "half-tree" (the solution to my missing row of branches- i re-used a row, and had to make it a half-tree, which helps in our small dining area anyway).

good night!